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COPYRIGHT DEPOSZR 








Songs 

of the 

Silence 




































/ 


; 




































SONGS 

of the 

SILENCE 

AND 

OTHER 

POEMS 


By 

FENWICKE L. HOLMES 

>4 

Author of “The Law of Mind in Action,” 
“Being and Becoming,” “The Faith That 
Heals,” “Practical Healing,” etc. 




NEW YORK 

Robert M. McBride Company 

1923 









































Copyright, 1923, by 
Fenwicke Lindsay Holmes 


’$35 


I 5 




St 

a3 


Printed in the 
United States of America 


Published, 1923 


APR 25 *23 


©CU ™ 4376 




CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Songs of the Silence. 1 

The Man of Vision. 2 

I See You as You Are. 3 

"The Pool. 4 

Chance and Choice. 5 

I Do Decree. 6 

Fear and Faith. 7 

I Do Believe. 8 

You Cannot Sail for Me. 9 

The Winged Victory.10 

The Word.12 

' N> I Breathe the Life of God.13 

Life Knows Me.14 

Life is All.15 

The Changing and the Changeless .... 16 

A Paying Plan.17 

The Greater Self.18 

'"'‘As a Man Thinks.19 

God Sent an Angel.20 

The Challenge of Spring.21 

The Eyes of God.22 

Love Lifts.23 

With Nature’s Peace.24 

The Face of God.25 

Spring.27 

Strong Thought of Life.28 

Morning Prayer.29 

Defeated Never .31 

Upon the Sea.32 

Why Worry.33 

On Nobler Wings.34 

Within.35 

Happy Isles of Merced.36 

The Breadth of God.39 



































CONTENTS 


PAGE 

Christ is Born Again.40 

On to the Heights!.41 

I Thought a Thought.42 

At Sunset.43 

I Wonder Why.44 

The Stream of Joy.45 

The Spirit’s Serenity.47 

The Souls of Light.48 

A Word of Cheer.49 

The Christ Thy Pilot.50 

The Trails.51 

God’s Blunder.52 

Your Plan .53 

The Master Power.54 

The Circle of Love.55 

Who Thinks.56 

The Critics.58 

The Song of Man.59 

How Good is the World !.61 

Life.62 

You Did Not Care.64 

He Damns Himself.65 

The Man Who is Lost.66 

Morning.67 

The Passing Crowd.68 

Take What You Will.69 

The Frictionless Way.70 

Unspool Your Life.71 

Delusions.72 

Like the Brook.73 

The Laugh of a Boy.74 

My Greatest Enemy.75 

One String.76 

Today I Work.77 

Memorial to Heroism.78 

Motherhood.79 

Are They Lost?.80 

The Day Controls the Night.82 

The New Flag of Peace.83 

Healing Song.84 

Anchorage.85 

The Flight of the Soul.86 

God of Men and Nations.87 













































CONTENTS 


PAGE 

One Thing I Know.88 

To Will and to Do.89 

My Boy Beyond.90 

The Home Harbor.91 

My Affirmation.92 

My Assurance.93 

Mtf Confidence.94 

Be Still.95 

Held Fast.96 

Now Do I Receive.97 

Look Up.98 

My Mind Was Changed.99 

Look for the Good.101 

For Her.102 

Stars and Fire-flies.103 

My Clock.105 

Bigger Than the Stars.107 

Children’s Poems.109 

The Star Man .Ill 

God’s Little One.113 

The Words You Say.114 

If I Were a Boy Again.116 

I Am Singing.118 

My Good-Night Prayer.119 


































SONGS OF THE SILENCE 


T OSSED by life’s billows, yet never submerged, 
The spirit within me, instinctive, is urged 
Down the long trail of the light-o-the-sea, 

Away to the Land of the Ever-to-Be. 

Sailing, I sing, and singing, I sail 
Out on my course in the sweep of the gale. 
Knowing my word is a sail and a wing, 

I sing as I sail and sail as I sing. 

Nearer and nearer the rim of the world, 

I fling to the breeze every canvas unfurled: 
Swept by the free winds from sunrise to star, 

I make for the harbor that lieth afar. 

Never alone on the breast of the sea, 

I list to a voice that is singing to me 
The songs of the silence. Its bird-wings afloat 
Against the far light, with its musical note, 

It glides on before me, proclaiming the way 
That leaps from the sea-light into the day. 
Everything moves to the voice as it speaks: 

The word I have uttered, embodies and seeks 
Expression in form; and the passionate thought 
I spoke in the silence, my future has wrought. 

So I sail; so I sing; so, free as a bird 
I rule my own fate by the power of my word. 


[ 1 ] 


THE MAN OF VISION 


A MAN there was with a common name 
And a common view of life; 

His thoughts were always of common things 
And never rose to the sky on wings, 

Nor ever soared where the spirit sings 
Far over the common strife. 

So he lived and worked in a common way, 
In a plain and grubworm style, 

And ate and slept with never a thought 
To lift him out of the common lot; 

And so at length in a common spot 
They laid him after a while. 

Another I saw with a common name 
But a vision vast and high; 

He dreamed of heights for his soul to climb; 

And, vision with act in perfect rhyme, 

He flung himself with a faith sublime, 

Far out on the trackless sky. 

He blazed a trail for the souls to come 
With a dreamer’s artless art; 

For, ever the dreamer of noble mind 
Who lives the vision, shall living find 
His vision painted for all mankind 
And hung in the common heart. 


9 


[ 2 ] 


I SEE YOU AS YOU ARE 


T SEE you as you are, O man, 

I see you as you are! 

Yes, men may drive you from their path, 
The world may curse you in its wrath, 
Your own heart join the choiring swell 
That ever chants of how you fell 
And drives you into deeper hell; 

Yet bruised by scar on scar, 

I see you as you are. 

I see you as a starry youth 
All-radiant with the zeal of truth, 

All-eager for your golden quest, 
All-courage for the hardest test! 

How firm your faith! for life, what zest 1 
Though others see a fallen star, 

I see you as you are. 

I see you as you are; the plan 
Of devil, demon, fate or man 
Cannot destroy the self I see, 

A winged spirit. Aye, in thee, 

I see the life that cannot be 
Imprisoned by a bar: 

I see you as you are. 

I see thy self, a god concealed, 

An image hid, yet half revealed: 

For well I know that in that frame, 

The body spoiled by lust and shame, 

Is one who answers to the name 
Of god. Nor time can mar 
The mighty self you are. 

And in thy sky shall dawn the time 
Thy soul shall wake; in pow’r sublime 
Shall cast aside its wretched fears 
And all the broken things of years, 

And lo! a brilliant light appears, 

A new and splendid star! 

I see you as you are. 


[3] 


THE POOL 


A ROUND me cans and muck and mire, 
Old brush and filth and twisted wire, 
A city’s dumping ground. 

And in its midst a little pool! 

How bright it shone, how calm and cool, 
With chaos all around! 

Surprised to find it in this place, 

I gazed upon its crystal face 
To search its secret deep. 

And lo! I saw a sky and sun 
And fleecy clouds—a fabric spun, 

A shepherd and his sheep, 

An arching dome, a whole wide sky, 

But not a trace could I descry 
Of filth that lay around. 

The pool reflected all above 
And pregnant with its lofty love 
It mated not the ground. 


[4] 


CHANCE AND CHOICE 


r PHE base soul bows his head in fear 

And prays to gods of fickle chance; 

The noble faces all with cheer 
And dares remake the circumstance. 

One prays, “O God, I take the blow 
That falls upon my chastened head:" 

The other eyes his subtile foe 
And gets his own blow in instead. 

One hopes his hopes and prays his prayers 
And wishes good might come his way; 

The other steers the bark that bears 
His heavy cargo through the spray. 

Thus o’er the sea to harbors far 
Each steers his bark, each pulls his oar, 

Each sets his sail, each picks his star, 

Each meets the calm or tempest’s roar. 

One strikes life’s wave like armor-plate; 
The other leaps it, splendid, free: 

And what the craven takes as fate, 

The great soul turns to destiny. 


[5] 




I DO DECREE 


I DO decree! Let life reveal 
Its hidden good to me. 

I do decree that fate shall stand 
Aside and let me see 
My way. 

I do decree that joy shall swing 
On to my path again. 

I do decree that honors due 
Shall come to me from men 
Who pay. 

I do decree! Fate, stand aside! 

Begone, you sneaking foe! 

I do decree! I am the man 
Who tells the way I go 
Or rest. 

I do decree! I tremble not. 

Strike on! I know your ruse. 

I do decree! Tis I that speak, 
Tis I select and choose 
My best. 

I do decree! From out the void 
My vision springs to form. 

I do decree that I shall find 
My good in ev’ry storm 
That blows. 

I do decree! Today I have 
That which my soul demands. 

I do decree! My pray’r is heard 
By That Which understands, 
Which knows. 


[6] 


FEAR AND FAITH 


H E who arises with faith in the day 

Shall find a straight path to his goal; 
While he who fears as he goes on his way, 
Shall pay a great price to his soul. 

'Tis he who dares to have faith in himself 
Who finds all the world will agree, 

And gladly giving its honors and pelf 
Rejoices in men such as he. 

Be not a craven the hour that you are 
In touch with the great of the clan, 

But take your place as a co-equal star, 

Since each at the base is a manl 


[7] 



I DO BELIEVE 


I DO believe the sun will shine 

On paths now wet with tears, 

That good must come at length to me 
Out of the woe of years. 

I do believe my hand shall guide 
My vessel through the haze, 

That some clear star shall shine for me 
And lead to splendid days. 

I do believe that noble hearts 
Shall win their way at length, 

That to the soul that will not doubt 
Is given double strength. 

I do believe that friends are true, 

That life is good and fine, 

That through my faith I win to me 
The good I would were mine. 

I do believe! No hope or force 
Avails for power or pelf 
One half so much as does my faith 
That takes them for myself! 


[8] 


YOU CANNOT SAIL FOR ME 


^PO-DAY I set my soul the task 
*■- To go the way I will: 

To-day let all who wish me well 
And all who wish me ill 
Be still. 

For I shall go as my soul decrees, 

I shall make for the harbors I choose, 

It is I set the sail, 

It is I face the gale, 

It is I who must cope with the ruse 
And the will of the storm. 

If I am to sail 
Afar, without trail 
Alone on the breast of the sea, 

Can you turn the rudder for me, 

Can you set my sail? 

Can you meet my gale? 

Is it you who shall take the blow? 

Ah, then, is it well 
That you seek to tell 
Or dictate the way I shall go? 

You may point me the light of a star, 

You may warn of the reef and the bar, 

You may say, “It is so and is so,” 

You may mark out a way I can go— 

BUT YOU SHALL NOT SAIL IT FOR 
ME. 


[9] 


THE WINGED VICTORY 


I SOUGHT of the muse, “Reveal to me 
What can the Winged Victory be.” 

And she answered, “The angel with victor wings 
Is the Angel of Hope and Faith that springs 
To the aid of man, and of triumph sings.” 

Then the muse breathed deep the delphic air 
And told me these tales of the Angel rare: 

“Once as a man fared on and climbed the steep, 

He groaned and all but fell upon the earth. 

His strength entirely spent, his brow bit deep 
With pain, his life had lost its sense of worth. 

The night came on apace, black shadows fell 
Across the path, and from his lips was wrung 
A cry of anguish, like a soul in hell 
Upon whose tortured flesh new wracks are sprung. 
When, lo! a light! He lifted eyes and saw 
Thee there, thou Angel Form of Victory! 

And over all his soul, pain-wracked and raw 
There fell the light and peace that come from Thee, 
Thou Winged Victory. He gazed, and fair 
Across his sight there gleamed Thy angel light: 

And by that vision, did his soul, aware 
Of Thee, grow strong. HE WON THE HEIGHT P 

Alone upon the sea, a sailor lad 
With weakened clasp, gripped hopeless at the oar, 
And mumbled in his throat, as one gone mad 
With thirst, and pulls with faith and strength no more. 
And he had plunged, despairing, in the sea, 

Hadst Thou not come and held out beck’ning hand 
And called to him, O Winged Victory. 

But having faith in Thee, he won the land! 

What then, or who art Thou, Thou vision blessed, 

That in the last despairing hour of men 
Appears; that so, the mind, distraught, distressed, 
Defeats defeat, and wins its way again? 

“I am the Word, the Winged Word of Life, 

I am the Truth the struggling world must find; 

I am the Sword of Faith that wins in strife, 

I am the Messenger of Cosmic Mind: 

[ 10 ] 


And he who dares to seek and trust this power, 

Shall find my throne and dais in his soul. 

I am within, I am that Higher Knower, 

I am, I am, the I Am of the Whole. 

Within thy soul, I am thy Will-to-Do, 

I am thy self, revealed; I am thy might, 

I am the Great Unlimited in you, 

Have faith in me and THOU SHALT WIN THE 
HEIGHT!” 


THE WORD 


T HE Word is a wing that wends its way 
To the lost, the lonely, the soul astray: 
’Tis the breath of love, ’tis a mother’s prayer, 
’Tis a song set singing in the air. 

’Tis a jewel, a gem of fair renown: 

’Tis the Sacred Book, ’tis the scholar’s gown: 
’Tis the Pow’r of Truth, to God ’tis kin: 

For the Word is the Voice of Christ within.” 


[ 12 ] 


I BREATHE THE LIFE OF GOD 


I BREATHE the life and love of God, 

The spirit-raptured air, 

And feel the thrilling, vibrant force 
Of Him whose ardent care 
Enfills the whole. 

I breathe His life as one who quaffs 
From out the sacred cup, 

Who drinks the wine of God, the Vine; 

For, as I turn it up, 

God fills the bowl. 

I thrill anew with health and peace, 

While through my veins asurge 
There flow the full-breathed tides of health 
That cleanse, inspire, and purge 
From pain and strife. 

I breathe more deep the pranic air, 

Drink deeper still the bowl; 

For as I drink, from Life’s full brink, 

God fills my thirsty soul 
With His own life. 


[131 


LIFE KNOWS ME 


O LIFE, I have no theme to make 

My muse to sing, my lyre to wake 
But thee: no spring from which to drink 
But life with overflowing brink 
To satisfy my muse and slake 
The uprush of my mind. 

In thee alone I find 
My mystic lyre 
Aflame with fire. 

O life, how often have I sought 
Some theme that would engage thee not, 

But ever as I touch the string 
It is thy voice that comes to sing, 

And, all unconscious, I have wrought 
No melody but thee. 

O life, what can it be 
That strikes my lyre 
With its own fire? 

O mystery of life and all within! 

What I shall be, what I have been, 

What I am now, what makes me so, 

How I have come! Oh could I know 
What is my source, and what my kin, 

Then might I know the pow’r 
That rises at this very hour 
To strike my lyre 
With its own fire. 

From whence comes truth, ’til now unknown? 

From what far wisdoms is it blown? 

From what vast center does it rise 
To fill me with some new surprise? 

O life, this only am I shown, 

That though I know not thee 
Still Life itself knows me 
And strikes my lyre 
With its own fire. 


[ 14 ] 


LIFE IS ALL 


F OR life we know, and knowing, do not know— 
Whence do we come, and whither do we go?— 

Yet life is all and plays the master role, 

It is its own true witness to its fact; 

Illusive, subtile substance of the soul 

That ever gives of self and yet remains intact. 


[151 


THE CHANGING AND THE CHANGELESS 


A MIDST the changing, moving play of forces, 
Amidst the ever alt’ring scope of things, 

Amidst life’s broken ties and intercourses, 

To one sure ground my soul, insistent, clings. 

There is one place where only love is spoken, 

Where Time rules not, though ages roll and roll, 

Where music played on harpstrings never broken 
Rings through the timeless, changeless chambers of my 
soul. 


[ 16 ] 


A PAYING PLAN 


T TE looked at life with level eyes, 

He felt no fear: as one applies 
The steady calmness of his soul 
To play his part and take his role, 

He did his work. A stalwart man, 

He gave to life a paying plan. 

Who thought of him felt not the flash 
And sparkle of the comet’s dash, 

But rather sensed the steady star 
That radiates its light afar, 

Around whose orb the planets roll, 

Whose currents run from pole to pole, 
Compelling not by bursts of power 
But silently from hour to hour. 

And men, concurrent to his thought, 

Were like the planets—knew it not! 

’Tis not the man who makes a fight 
To magnetize and rule by might, 
Achieves the most: the Would-Be-Great 
Shall win small honors from the state. 
But down the vistas of all time 
His life is luminous, sublime, 

Who does his best: he wins who tries 
To look at life with level eyes. 

Who gives to life a paying plan 
Shall take the title of a man. 


[ 17 ] 


THE GREATER SELF 


T AM thy life within thee, 

I am thy health; 

I am thy choicest treasure, 

I am thy wealth; 

I am thy deepest wisdom, 

I am thy light; 

I am thy power within thee, 

I am thy might; 

I am thy warm emotion, 

I am thy truth; 

I am thine ageless heritage, 

I am thy youth; 

I am thy hope of heaven, 

I am the way; 

I am thy light eternal, 

I am the day; 

I am thy will-to-conquer, 

I am thy sword; 

I am the peace thou cravest, 

I am the Word. 

* * * * * 

I am the Inner Presence, 

Forever nigh; 

Whenever thou dost say, “I am,” 
I AM that L 


[18] 


AS A MAN THINKS 


I T has always been known to the wise 
That the man who achieves the most 
Is the man who will dare 
Face the foe in his lair 
And go in and lay claim to the prize. 

He who fears but creates him the ghost 
That he fears: let him go 
To the grave with the woe 
That he makes: let him lie as he fell. 

As for you, you must know that your path 
Is encircled by friends or by foe 
As you will: you must take 
That same path that you make 
By your thought: and the blessings or wrath 
That encourage or trouble you so 
Are your own: mark it well 
That your heaven or hell 
Is the state of your mind and your heart. 

For the measure of worth of a man 
Is the thought of his heart: and he lives 
As he plans and desires 
By the faith and the fires 
Of his soul. And the world, quick to scan 
What he is by his act, always gives 
As he gives, kind for kind; 

And the good he shall find, 

He can measure at first in his heart. 


[19] 


GOD SENT AN ANGEL 


G OD sent an angel to speak to me 
A word He was fain I hear; 
And the angel brought the message 
And whispered it in my ear. 

God knew I needed the word He sent— 
I had lost the zest of fight, 

And the right was all but beaten; 

The wrong—it was all but right. 

Simple the word that He sent to me— 
But it soothed a spirit raw 
With the pain of too much striving— 

It was, “Love fulfills the law.” 


[20] 


THE CHALLENGE OF SPRING 


ES, the world is growing greener, 



Everything in mad delight, 
Throws aside the winter garments 
And the robes of spotted white, 

And with eager aspiration, 

Leaps to kiss the lover, Light. 

So in modesty but longing, 

Nature turns her maiden face 
To the maddened, gladdened mating 
Of her dear lord, who in grace, 
Opens wide her ample bosom 
To give suckle to the race. 

Let thy soul, inspired by nature, 

Lay aside her robes uncouth: 

Mate that soul, in sweet renewal 
Of thy pledge, to God and truth: 
And at length give birth in action 
To the visions of thy youth. 


[21] 


THE EYES OF GOD 


T O-DAY in faith and quiet rest 
I lay my head upon the breast 
Of love; I look into the silent eyes 
That watch me from the placid skies 
And read the wonder of the heart behind— 

The great deep wonder of Creative Mind 
That bodies forth a world, so greatly fair: 

For something seems responsive there, 

And half by faith and half by sight 
I read a Presence in heaven’s light. 

So unafraid I rest, while eyes divine 
Keep silent watch o’er me and mine. 

Though earth shall sway and storms shall rage, 
And forms of darkness stalk the stage 
Of human life, and great waves sweep the deck, 

I fear no evil and I dread no wreck; 

But still do rest amid it all, the while 

I know the eyes of God do smile 

Behind the cloud. Some day the fogs shall lift 

And I shall see God’s face there in the rift. 



LOVE LIFTS 


TT is love that lifts the burden, 

Love that lightens ev’ry task; 
Fear not thou, but cease thy struggle; 

Love will give you all you ask. 

Love is God; and all about you 
Breathes His presence on the air, 
Unseen hands are raised to help you 
By the Presence everywhere. 

Love is Life; its rising surges 
Sweep in tides around the wreck, 
Lift and bear it to the ocean, 

With the captain on the deck. 

Thou, the captain; God, the ocean, 
Love, the power that moves the tide 
Pilot past the bar and breakers, 

Love is acting as thy guide. 


[23] 



WITH NATURE’S PEACE 


W RAPPED in billows of softest white. 

Pillowed in mist where they may rest, 
The hills are slipping out of sight 
To sweet embracement on Nature’s breast. 


There comes a note 

From a warbling throat, 

A farewell to the light; 

Then from hill to hill 
Goes a whisper still, 

“Good-night, sleep sweet, good-night. 






S 


Wrapped in a love that will hold me fast, 

Close to the heart of a God who cares, 

The great adventure, I’ll make at last, 

With calm as deep as my evening prayers. 


[ 24 ] 

fttmmmtti m mpiulu ■ 


























THE FACE OF GOD 


O GOD-THRILLED world 
Where all unfurled 
The tokens of our God display, 

The sea and air 
And Nature rare 

Have made the Unseen real today. 

Thy hidden face 
Today I trace 

In wide-flung wonders of the deep : 

The life below 
Thy life doth know, 

And all its treasures Thou dost keep. 

The cloud-decked sky, 

The soft wind’s sigh 

Express Thy Presence, breathe Thy Name 
The wee wild flower 
Scarce born an hour 
Is with Thy passion all aflame. 

The rugged hill 
In quiet, still, 

Outlines its strength against the sky; 

Yet every peak 
I think doth speak 
And shout its praises, “God is nigh.” 

With vibrant wings 
The bird upsprings 
And pours its paean mete of praise; 

The thrilling note 
That swells its throat 
Is full of praise of Thy rich ways. 

O bird atilt, 

Wing where thou wilt, 

Thou canst not fly beyond our God; 

For He is there 
Beyond the air, 

Who stirs the life within the clod. 

[ 25 ] 


Yet surer far 
Than sea or star 

Or all the scroll that spells Thy Name 
Is sense of Thee 
That thrills in me 

And those whom Thou hast made the same 

Ah, love-filled soul, 

The perfect whole 
Is made of God and man a part; 

So all in Thee 
I take to me, 

And in return give Thee my heart. 


[26] 


SPRING 


A LL the world is alive 
***• And throbs with a pulse divine; 

A sentient mind sustains: 

The soul of it all is God. 

All Nature seems to strive— 

The sap that stirs in the vine, 

The germ that lives in the grain, 

The bud that sprouts on the rod. 

The sun pours out new life, 

The hillsides leap toward the sky, 

And living voices are heard— 

The rush and bustle of spring. 

The Living Spirit is nigh, 

And remotest places are rife 
With risings up of the bird 
And silent things that do sing: 

“It is God, it is God/’ they shout, 

“It is Life, it is Life of One 

Who lives in all and thrills through all 

From the tiny seed to the sun.” 

“So awake to the touch of God, 

So arouse to the living Soul 
And heed the call of God in all, 

Of the Life that sustains the whole.” 


[27] 


STRONG THOUGHT OF LIFE 


S TRONG thought of life, the birth of Christ, 
Uplifts the fainting heart, 

Brings man to God and shows him that 
He has with God a part— 

A part with Life, a part with Truth, 

A part with Ceaseless Love, 

And shares with God, the Absolute 

In things that rise above 

Mere sense and sound and outer fact, 

Denying grief and pain 
By rising to that higher realm, 

Where we are one again— 

One in the love of loves, 

One in the endless song, 

One in the peace of God, 

One in the power strong. 

O Christ of God, immortal hope, 

Awake my slumbering soul, 

That I at length may find myself, 

Harmonious and whole. 

Then rise, my soul, in buoyant faith, 

Mount, mount in lofty flight, 

Pursue thy way through shadows dim, 

Leave darkness and the night. 

Press on! Ascend! the birth of Christ 
Becomes a fact within— 

A light, a power—Thy light and power, 

For thou to God art kin— 

One in the endless joy, 

One in the life sublime, 

One in the light of lights, 

One in the ageless time. 


[28] 


MORNING PRAYER 


'T'O-DAY! not yesterday nor tomorrow, 

^ Now —I awake to thee. 

This moment, I am alive to thee 
And do rejoice. 

What is past, has been, is gone, 

I know thee not, O yesterday; 

Pain, sorrow, grief, distress, I know not thee: 

Vain pinings, anguishes of soul, 

And dread defeat, you are no more: 

Into the mists of yesterday, I plunge you 
And go on — On, into Today! 

Today — I welcome you! 

Hail, sister of the morning: 

I salute you! I joy in you, Today. 

Tomorrow with its heavy padlock seal, 

Its dim and vapory landscapes, 

Its unpaved ways and unplumbed seas, 

You I know not; or knowing, do not fear. 

In yonder unknown harbors, freight of good 
Is heaping on the deck; and ships, no doubt, 

Do sail away to greet Todays, I yet shall see 
— I know not, fear not — trust — am satisfied, 
Because Today is here! 

Today, I live and love and learn, 

Today, I hope and work and plan; 

The golden arrows of the morning 
Hit the mark and bring me wealth of joy. 

I catch the splendid fragrance of the morning, 

I feel the breath of God upon my cheek, 

A resurrected life now opens wide 
The portals of the tomb of night: 

Day dawns — Today is here! 

Dear God, today is here. With Thee 
Today, so may I live, as though today 
Were all that ever was, with more to be. 

So let me joy today, and help me serve, 

And give me strength and hold my hand, 

And drive out fear, dear God, today, 

And send thy angel Hope to me, 

Send Faith to meet me on my way 
To sweeten all my thoughts, 

And Love to keep me true. 

[ 29 ] 


As one who lives with angels 
And treads the golden streets of Paradise, 

So may I live with men and Thee 
And do my work today! 

Then at the evening hour 
Come joy of one who lived with God—Today. 


[30] 


DEFEATED NEVER 


“PNEFEATED? Never! Held back, confined, per- 
U haps, 

But only as the current of a stream: 

The rushing torrent of my life still gathers 
And, swirling, threatens the obstructing beam. 

Discouraged? I deny the imputation, 

The silent forces of my life flow on; 

The deep resistance of the soul grows stronger; 

And all my fears of foe and fate are gone. 

Because I know some day the channel opens 
And my determined will has right of way— 

I wait, but gather force each hour of waiting, 

And scorn the coward’s whispers of dismay. 

Above the dam the waters lie but deeper, 

The swirling eddy tokens more of life: 

Who measures strength with fate, has stronger 
muscle, 

Emerges more a man from every strife. 

Valiantly strive, nor heed opposing forces: 

No power avails thy genius to control; 

God sends his rain to feed thy flood, which, rising, 
Sweeps all before the onrush of thy soul. 


[31] 


UPON THE SEA 


O DEMONS of the deep, 

Ye hover there and cover there 
The pathway of the sea. 

In mists ye wait; with fiendish hate 
Ye lie in wait for me. 

But spirits of the deep 

Above you hover and discover 

The fearful things ye be 

And laughing, lift the deep clouds drift, 

And point a star to me. 

O stars above the deep, 

Ye brightly throw your golden glow 
Across the heaving sea; 

Ye join your hands with spirit bands 
And so ye pilot me. 

O spirits of the deep, 

Adown the aisles of lengthing miles 
I sail on beams of light 
Of stars ye found, whose rays have bound 
The demons of the night. 


[32] 


WHY WORRY? 


W HY hurry, friend, why hurry? 

Is there not time? 

Why worry, friend, why worry? 
You’re out of chime. 

It takes such force to worry, 

Come, ease the strain! 

And gain more strength to hurry 
At it again 1 


[33] 


ON NOBLER WINGS 


R ISE thou on nobler wings, 
Cleave thou the blue, 

Rise where the spirit sings, 

Soul, I pray you. 

Mount in thine upward surge 
Far toward the light, 

Follow the inner urge 
Out from the night. 

Leave thou the world of things, 
Battles and strife; 

Soar where the spirit flings 
Wide wings to life. 

Up! Let the earth recede 1 
Live thou anew! 

Be thou divine indeed, 

Sailing the blue. 

So shall the eyes of men 
Tracing thy flight 
Find out the way again 
There in the height. 

High into heav’n afar 
Thy way be pressed! 

There on some distant star 
Soul, build thy nest. 


[34] 


WITHIN 


T DREAM, I dream, 

I sail the stream 
Of magic thought 
And art untaught: 

I sail or drift 
In the channel rift 
Of unbound skies. 

It is Paradise 
To sail away 
For aye and aye. 

With angel wings 
My thought up-springs 
By ways untrod 
I find my God. 


[35] 


HAPPY ISLES OF MERCED 


I REST and I yield to the mood of the wild 
On the Happy Isles of Merced 
And list to the song the river-god sings 
To the trees that arch overhead. 

He sings to the strength and reach of the rocks, 
In the rude, rough rush of the tide, 

A hymn that is tuned to the river and rills, 

To the pines and all nature beside, 

In tune with the trees, the birds, and the light 
Of the sun that shines over all, 

The brawl of a brook adown the rough steep, 
And the savage voices that call. 

So I, in the mood of things as they are, 

To the quiet things that are still, 

To waters that rage in violent wrath, 

And the free, wild life, do thrill. 

A pagan am I, untaught in the schools, 

For in all do I sense a soul, 

The presence of Mind that is like my own, 

Or the genii in the whole. 

Great god! for I heard the voice of a tree! 

Dost thou proudly boast of thy strength? 

Dost bear with a smile thy century’s age, 

Or dost speak with pain of its length? 

I hear over there a whispering pine, 

Do you tell of years that have been? 

Dost prate of the lightning’s ravaging blasts 
And the thundrous noise and din? 

Or mention the awful drag of the hours 
When the summer burns with its heat 
The crest that you raise, the while you drink 
Of the deep, cool draughts at your feet? 

[ 36 ] 


Yon cliff, do you scowl at the Royal Arch 
With your glacial face all-aglare, 

Or stare at the crown of riven Half-Dome, 

Or deride its bald pate in the air? 

I rest and I dream beside the long course 
Of the river riding the rocks, 

Its heaving sides thick bedecked with its foam 
And the gleaming sun on its locks— 

Merced, with the tireless rush of its tide 
From Sierra snows to the sea, 

The maddest of courses a river can run 
As it spurs its way to the lea. 

A tale of the wildest ride in the heights:— 

O’er Nevada Falls with a leap, 

A plunge in the foam, then the swift mill-race 
Through the channel hewn in the steep. 

Unstayed in its course, it sweeps o’er the lip 
Of the granite mouth of the hills 
And plunges in might down Vernal Falls height 
To the churning pool which it fills. 

And so on and on Merced River runs 
As it hastens down to the sea, 

Now roaring with rage, now battling its way, 

And now with its bridle swung free. 

Run swiftly, O stream, adown your rough course 
Through the ageless clefts in the rock, 

Nor fear the long steeps of boulders and cliffs 
And the rude, wild scramble and shock. 

You chisel and cut your bit in the hills, 

And you carve your mark on the height; 

You join with the thousand forces at work 
To make Mother Earth a delight. 

I rest and I dream no more in the shade 
Of the Happy Isles of Merced: 

Inspired by the voice of river and trees, 

I am steeled to my task ahead. 

[ 37 ] 


I go! though the way be rough, and the shock 
Of the contest jar on my soul: 

I join with the thousand forces at work 
For the greater good of the whole. 

I battle my way in scorn of the rocks 
And the contest in which I engage, 

And laugh when I fall and sing through it all, 

Nor care I what tempests may rage. 

I count that the river-god spoke to my soul 
In the vibrant voice of the wild: 

“Protection and care are found everywhere, 

For the brave, all Nature is mild. 

Then fear not the tempest, doubt not the end, 

In the sea is rest and delight, 

And greater the joy that sings in your soul 
That YOU LEFT YOUR MARK ON THE 
HEIGHT.” 


[ 38 ] 


THE BREADTH OF GOD 


O H, how can men gaze on the boundless sea 
And think that the nature of God can be 
Narrowed and trimmed to a fancied creed:— 
And to win God’s favor, that man should need 
The awful price of the lofty deed 
Some Christ must pay. 

Oh, why not look on the world’s wide swing 
Among the planets that moving sing 
Of the great broad range of the Cosmic heart, 
As the breadth of a God who does impart 
His life to his child until he start 
The Christlike way? 

Then let us believe that the God All-Good 
Can truly express His Fatherhood; 

And man who springs from a heart so kind 
In inner being and soul shall find 
His buried self and the godlike mind 
Of Christ some day. 


[ 39 ] 


CHRIST IS BORN AGAIN 


N OT in a blinding flash of light, 
Not in the thunder peal, 

Not in the guise of pow’r and might, 
Doth God Himself reveal. 

Silent, as star-beams light the sky, 

So comes our Lord to earth, 

Not as a king with trumpet cry, 

But as a babe has birth. 

Into the empty human heart, 

God’s holy love for men 
To those who seek he will impart, 
And Christ is born again. 


[ 40 ] 


ON TO THE HEIGHTS! 


i^VN to the heights, I bid thee speed! 

On to the mountain peak! 

Rough winds the trail 
O’er hill and vale— 

Noble the heights you seek. 

Climb on in morning light and strength, 
On in the heat of noon, 

Soon comes the night 
To quench the light— 

Comes on the night too soon. 

Rock-strewn the way, yet up and on! 
Courage to gain the goal! 

By hidden fear 
And shadows drear, 

On, on, aspiring soul! 

Fear not the way! There’s light beyond; 
Soon on the heights you stand, 

Above the plane 
Of want and gain, 

Above the desert land. 

Above the sea of doubt and grief, 

Above the vale of greed, 

You stand on heights, 

Divinest rights, 

A son of God indeed! 

God-girded mountain peaks, whereto 
Alone the noble rise, 

Thine upward thought 
And act have brought 
Thy soul to Paradise. 


[ 41 ] 


I THOUGHT A THOUGHT 


M Y world was empty, cold, and chill, 
And all-unkind, 

The while there waited on my will 
Creative Mind 

With unused powers of vastest good; 

Yet all-unsought. 

THE VISION CAME, I understood, 

I THOUGHT A THOUGHT! 

And by that thought, my world, ablaze, 
Flared into form: 

And, by that thought, from primal haze, 
Love, tender, warm, 

Was flashed in splendor to my soul 
No more in fear, 

While angels wrote on heaven’s scroll. 

“A Christ is here.” 


[ 42 ] 




I 



AT SUNSET 

A RAINBOW beauty fills the air, 
The very sky and sea 
Are joined in golden fellowship, 

Like one, they seem to me. 



When love for God adorns our lives 
And crowns our every act, 

We seem but one, we are but one, 
And heaven is a fact. 



[431 
















I WONDER WHY 


I WONDER why through the sky at night, 
When the clouds are rolling low, 

The sinking sun sends its softest light 
And the world is most aglow. 

I wonder why the light-house gleams 
With a swift, ever-changing ray; 

The warning flash but a moment beams 
For the pilot out on the bay. 

I wonder why the springing flow’r, 

As it suckles at Nature’s breast, 

Should pause, as it does, and shrink an hour 
Like one who has need of his rest. 

I wonder why in the pool most pure 
Is reflected the most of heaven; 

Why wind-swept mountain oaks endure 
While the oaks in the vale are riven. 

I wonder why the homing bird 
In the great wide range of the sky 
Can wing its way with a heart unstirred 
By the trackless course it must fly. 

And yet do I wonder why? 


[ 44 ] 


THE STREAM OF JOY 


/^VH, the world is running over 

With the bubbling stream of joy. 
Everything is full of gladness, 

All the birds their songs employ 
Singing happily of freedom 
And the wide expanse of sky, 

Chanting songs of praise like angels 
While through sunny airs they fly; 
Busy building, nesting, mating 
Through the hazy mists of morn, 
Singing lullabys of sweetness 
When the setting sun is gone. 

In the sunlight, lo! the daisies 
Lift their lilting heads and nod, 
“Thou, O sun, hast made us like thee, 
Drink we deep thy draughts, O God. 
Drink we deep thy merry sunshine 
Till, ablaze with fiery ray, 

We, the mirror of thy radiance, 

Smile back gladness to the day.” 

Lo! beside me whisper grasses, 

And before me murmur pines. 

Yea, the sap within the trellis 
As it stretches forth its vines 
Breathes a voice to which I listen 
As in rapt amaze I stand, 

Joyous songs of praise arising, 

Lilting laughter through the land. 
Shall I then, ’midst Nature’s gladness, 
With a face all pulled with woe 
Stand as one begirt with dangers 
While the torrents round him flow? 
Rather with a mad abandon 
Let me yield to Nature’s mood, 

And with joy in flower and sunlight 
Let me rally to the good. 

Songs of gladness running over, 

All the world with me in tune, 

I shall pitch my key of living 
To the melodies of June. 

I shall lift my face toward heaven 
As the daisies toward the sun; 

[ 45 ] 


I shall mirror back the likeness 
Of the God in me begun. 

Like a river sweeping onward, 

Though it pause to turn the wheel, 
Though it scatter life about it 
Where its fresh’ning waters steal; 
Though it bend its ardent forces 
Toward the journey's end—the sea— 
Still it ripples in the sunlight 
Still it laughs for you and me. 
While it lends its back to labor, 

Still delightful is its voice— 

Let me, like it, bear my burdens, 

In my onward sweep, rejoice. 

I, too, pass through banks confining, 

I, too, spread my good abroad, 

I, too, bend my forces seaward, 

I, too, lift my face to God. 

So I join the voice of Nature 
From the river to the wood; 

Join the anthem of its gladness 
And rejoice in God the Good. 


[46] 


THE SPIRIT’S SERENITY 


TNTO this world from a Far Unknown— 

Am I sent from the Mind of God? 

And through this world to the Great Beyond— 
Am I spirit, or soul, or clod? 

Drawing my life from a rich dim past, 

Shall I fear for myself today? 

Bathed in light of the sunset glow, 

I am surely more than the clay. 

Who thinks high thoughts is above the clod 
And is born of a nobler birth; 

His mind is knit to the Mind of God, 

And his soul has eternal worth. 


[47] 


THE SOULS OF LIGHT 


S OME souls are the sheen of the placid moon 
Which shivers adown the air; 

And some are the light of the stars at night, 
While some are a comet rare. 

And some are a ray of the noon-day sun; 

And others, the glow of dawn; 

And some are as black as a world arack; 

And some are a star, new-born. 

But yours is the gleam of the pure white ray 
That streams from the Light of light, 

And yours is the soul whose radiant role 
Is to guide the souls of night. 


[48] 


A WORD OF CHEER 


OING ho! for a word of cheer in need; 

^ For all need a word of cheer, indeed; 
And no deed can bring such sunshine here 
As shines for us in a word of cheer. 


For hope grows dim and the shadows fall 
And the shade of night draws over all; 
And our souls in the darkness grope 
And lost is the glimmering light of hope. 

Unless we’ve a word of cheer, good will, 
From one who sees, feels the sunshine still, 
And into our souls reflects the light 
To sun our souls in the darkest night. 


0 


[49] 


THE CHRIST THY PILOT 


M IDST the rush and roar of life 

And the mortal sense of strife, 

Hear the voice of Peace and Truth that calls to thee, 
“Ye can cast out fear and pain 
And ’twill never come again, 

For the Christ within forever sets you free.” 

“O ye sailors tossed about 
On the troubled sea of doubt, 

Ye can never win the shore by might alone. 

Trust the power within thy soul, 

Light that guides from pole to pole, 

And the life of God and thine shall be as one!” 

“Though the breakers loudly roar, 

Casting wreckage on the shore, 

Ye shall steer your vessel freely as in calm: 

I, thy star, shall shine for thee, 

I, the Christ, thy pilot be, 

And the pow’r of God shall save thee from all harm.” 


[50] 


THE TRAILS 


O H, the wild delight of the trails 1 
High trails that lead us up, 

Up to the crown of things, 

On to the crest of things, 

Over the top of things 
Launching my soul 
Far o’er the clod. 

So, where my spirit flings 
Out to the deep its wings, 

E’en there my soul upsprings, 
Playing its role— 

So—like a god! 


[51] 


GOD’S BLUNDER 


O GOD, to understand, to once—just once to know 
Who is that man who sits pathetic there 
With twisted face and form and ruffled, whitened hair! 

What does he think who seems quite past 
The conscious effort of a thought, whose cast 
Of countenance speaks neither hope nor fear 
But dumb resignment and—but here, 

To what is he resigned? Is there within, 

Behind, unseen, some hidden force akin 
To thought, that knows or feels or senses That 
Which I see not? Is there in all this stumbling frame 
O’errun with care, some Thing or Soul whose name 
Is waiting to be called, and knows the call will come? 

But God, O God, why should this dumb 
And stagg’ring age, this broken sunken thing 
Devolve and stumble, crawl and cling! 

Couldst Thou not make a man who would not break? 

Is man a cosmic blunder, a mistake? 

I dare not think ’tis so, for madness lies 
E’en in the act of asking why man dies. 

I can, I must, I shall but feel 
That man some day shall wake, reveal 
A cryptic pow’r that laughs at age 
And finds his body not a cage 
But lofty vehicle of Light, 

Nor feel nor know again the blight 
That tears my soul and covers me with night. 


[52] 


YOUR PLAN 


I N the schools you have heard 
That the choice of a word 

Gives flight to your thought like the wings of a bird. 

Let it also be taught: 

To your life you have brought 
Your good or your ill on the wings of your thought. 

You must know that the worm 
Will continue to squirm 
So long as he thinks in the terms of a worm. 

But the worm that will dare 
To aspire to the air 

Will burst from the chrysalis, winged and fair. 

Then let us believe 
That what we achieve 

Will be in the end what we dare to conceive. 


[53] 


THE MASTER POWER 


A SLEEP within thy soul today 
There lies a master pow’r 
That once awake would still thy storms, 
He sleeps until that hour 
That thou shalt say to self, “Awake, 

O mighty man in me; 

Still thou my storms, fill thou my sail, 

I cannot fail with thee.” 


154] 



T HE spring is mated to the brook 
In one continuous flow; 

The sky is mated to the sea 
In one long crimson glow; 

The mountains melt into the mist, 
And, stretching, rise on rise, 

They range afar to yonder star 
And mix in star-dust skies. 


The star is mirrored in the spring, 

Its spirit mated there: 

And so the great round circle runs 
To link the everywhere. 

’Tis love that winds through things and minds 
In one long golden chain; 

O’er circles vast, love’s loop is cast, 

And all is one again. 




1 


[55] 
























WHO THINKS 


T HE greatest power we know 
From which all others flow 
Is thought. 

The worlds were flung through space 
Each star was hung in place 
By thought. 

The wings by which we soar 
To heights not reached before 
Are thought. 

The lofty soul and great 
Wins not by chance or fate, 

But thought. 

E’en that I greatly fear, 

Long since I summoned here 
By thought. 

And ev’ry evil thing 
At first to earth we bring 
By thought. 

If thou wouldst win the best 
And meet life’s acid test, 

Then think! 

To rise above the crowd, 

You need not shout too loud. 

But think. 

O man, stand not and wait, 

But by thy thought create 1 
O think! 

Think how he serves mankind 
Who takes his godlike mind 
To think. 

The measure of a man 
Is what he dares to plan 
And think. 


[56] 


Up to the edge of time, 

His is the name sublime 
Who thinks. 

Who to the world has brought 
Some noble plan or thought, 
He thinks! 


[57] 


THE CRITICS 


T ET critics carp 

* And strum their harp 
With its frazzled string a-ring, 
I shall not note, 

For e’er I wrote 
I lived every line I sing. 


[58] 


THE SONG OF MAN 


M 


Y song shall ring 

Like bells, 
Like morning stars 

Shall sing, 

As one who tells 

Of bars 

Of light across 

The sky 

Or birds that wing 

And toss 

Their songs on high, 

Or fling 

In placid pools 

Their form. 

And I shall bring 

The storm 

From out the sea, 

And string 

My harp to play 

The free 

Long sweep of tides 

I may 

From ev’rything 

That rides 
Or swims the deep 

Secure 

A song to sing. 

I sweep 

All heav’n to lure 

Each thing 

To speak in song 

And voice. 

And, cornering 

The throng 

I give no choice 

But notes 

That stir the soul; 

I cling 

Until there floats 

The whole 

Long evening, 

One chant: 


[ 59 ] 


'The soul alone 


Is king, 

Nor fate shall daunt 

The man 

O’ermastering, 

Whose words 

And spirit can 

Out-swing 
The stars, out-wing 

The birds, 

Out-sing the sun 

And sea.” 


[60] 


HOW GOOD IS THE WORLD! 


L ILT of the waves as my bonnie ship 
Flies over the summer sea! 

I am filled with joy, for my nature craves 
A life that is wild and free 
As the sea-gulls swimming aslant the air, 

Or the springing wind with its breath so rare 
That it thrills new life in me. 

I shout, I sing ’til the echoes ring, 

I leap on the deck with joy; 

I race with the boat aside us afloat, 

I jeer and I cheer like a boy. 

How good is the world! Like a steed a-race, 
My staunch ship leaps at a rattling pace 
And plunges away with me. 

And I sail, I sail, and I pray that a gale 
May sweep o’er the summer sea 
And bear me away to the isles of joy 

Where the life-blood leaps in the veins of men, 
And the heart is warm, and love is alight, 

And the Love-god gives us day and night, 
Forever to live and to leap—a boy! 


[ 61 ] 


LIFE 


T HERE are hearts that cry with longing, 
With a thousand questions thronging, 
“What is all this life about?” 

“Why is all this pain and striving, 

Why this pressure, why this driving?” 

To the gods, these questions shout. 

“By what forces are we driven? 

Is the answer ever given 
To dissolve the final doubt?” 

“Are we moving to some distant 
Goal to find that some consistent 
Plan we’re working has come out?” 

“Blow on blow seems but the answer, 

Man revealed is but a dancer 
To the jiggling string of chance.” 

Yet, as oft’ I ponder over 
Fate of man as friend or lover, 

Much I find my hopes enhance. 

Deep within I find conviction 
All I do is not constriction, 

I control some circumstance. 

Will to live, I find deep-seated, 

Will to love finds life completed: 

Life is not an idle chance. 

Man, the master over forces, 

Man alone selects the courses 
He shall follow, he shall fly. 

Man above the stars transcendent 
Shall be over fate ascendent, 

He who now can rule the sky. 


[ 62 ] 


One more field alone to master, 

Into which he presses faster, 

Faster, faster soars on high! 

Past the stars his course is sweeping, 
Past the bars of death and weeping, 
Life is life, and cannot diel 


[ 63 ] 


YOU DID NOT CARE 


,r PIS not the wilful hurting 

That brings the fateful thrust 

’Tis not the angry speaking 
That breaks the hearts that trust. 

It is the thoughtless action 
Of those whose lives we share, 

The unintended cutting 
That shows they did not care. 

For words in anger spoken 
Are white-caps on the sea; 

It is the deeper waters 
That pass our fate’s decree. 

The careless word and action— 

’Tis these that cut and tear: 

What you have said unthinking 
Reveals you did not care. 


[64] 


HE DAMNS HIMSELF 


T_JTE damns himself who lives in fatal fear 
Of times or things or men; 

Who speaks in doleful tone of what the year 
May bring, and sighs again 
And yet again, and frowns and bites his lip 
And says, “Perhaps today 
My work will fail and everything will slip, 

Some chance or mishap may 
Seize me, and all I have on earth be lost.” 

And so ’tis he alone 

Who damns himself who goes to pay the cost 
And reap what he has sown. 

He damns himself who underrates his pow’r, 

Who strives, all-meek, to pick 
His way unseen. It is the dogs that cow’r 
That get the well-placed kick. 

But thou, when morning bursts the bounds of night 
And lays her wakeful hand 
Upon thy sleepy lids, shalt bless the light 
And rise from bed and stand 
And gaze with inner eye upon thy toil, 

And know that there is not 
But good for thee. Then go to take the spoil 
Of what thy faith has wrought. 

* * * * * * * 

We curse or bless ourselves by our own thought. 


[65] 


THE MAN WHO IS LOST 


T HE man who by the blows of fate 
Is thrust against the wall, 

Who thinks it is the stealthy hate 
Of gods that beat and maul; 

Is lost! 

Who shudders at some star and sign 
Or bows his head to blows 
And thinks it is the gods combine 
To force the way he goes 
Is lost! 

While he who knows that mind relates 
All forces interplay, 

Directs the line of all the fates 
And forces them to pay 
The cost. 

The safe way his, whose naked hand 
Dares grapple with the foe! 

It is the well-armed knave 
Who seeks the easy way to go 
Who’s lost! 


[66] 



■* . .* 




#>'(• * 






MORNING 


T HE finger-tips of dawn are layed upon the 
curtain of the night, 

The paling stars draw back; and at their lord’s 
approach they sing from sight. 


A long sigh rustles up the field of waving grain 
and tasseled com; 

The morning comes: into the hush of night there 
walks the lordly dawn. 




The watcher waits: and lo! across the huddled 
shadows of the earth 

There spreads a light that goes from gray to gold 
—day has its birth! 


Today is here! a fresh new day that drives afar 
the fevered dark, 

The glowing splendor of a day new-born! and 
list, the morning lark! 

O God, the morn! the day! the lark! the light! 
the sun! 

I know at last my fevered night is gone, my new 
day is begun. 

[ 67 ] 
























THE PASSING CROWD 


P ASSING by, passing by! 

Rushing, streaming, pouring 
In tides east and west, 

North and south; eyes alert 

To the main chance: taking a chance 

At every confluence of the tide! 

Tossed into eddies, whirled by passing streams of folks! 
Folks! Folks! Folks! 

People! Just people, men and women. 

Who they are, where they go, who knows? 

Does he who pelts down Market Street? 

Whither he who bounds along the boulevard? 

He who leaps the taxi’s path 

To flirt with death beneath 

The grinding wheel of yonder car, 

Does he know where he goes? 

Must he so haste, and whither? 

Day by day, passing, passing, passing by. 

I wonder as I watch them pass, 

Always going, never arriving: 

What do you seek? 

You who rush, have you found it yet? 

Not today! Not today! 

Tomorrow perhaps. Hasten! hasten ! 

Passing, passing by 1. 

Yet comes the day when man shall find 
That all he seeks in haste, he left behind; 

That all he left, he has within; 

That what shall come in him has been: 

For though he pass to far or nigh, 

He carries all of it as he goes by!— 

He who today goes rushing, rushing by. 


[68] 


TAKE WHAT YOU WILL 


TT7HEN life claims more than thy hand yet holds, 
* * When thou lackest the one thing yet, 

One stone to finish thy lofty pile, 

One gift of genius, one fortune’s smile, 

One friend to cheer for thy long last mile, 

When thou lackest this one thing yet, 

Shalt thou shut thine eyes and forget, 

Shalt thou fool thy soul? 

When life claims more, ’tis the crucial hour, 

’Tis the upward surge of the tide, 

This hour you win, or this hour you lose, 

This is the hour for your master ruse, 

The highest wave that you can choose 
Is just at the turn of the-tide, 

Seize what you will in faith and ride 
Safely to your goal. 


[69] 


THE FRICTIONLESS WAY 

N O frictions fray a speeding sun, 
No discords stay a star, 

As in the ethers vast they run 
And spray their light afar. 

And lesser worlds, by subtile force 
Are drawn into their train; 

But still they swing along their course 
Unstayed by stress or strain. 

Unhurried they, unslowed by time, 

And knowing not the night 
They move to cosmic notes sublime 
Through arcs of their own light. 
****** 

The master marks the measured beat 
And rhythmic swing of things, 

And moving to the time, his feet 
Are clad with buoyant wings. 

Attuned to life and polarized 
To every noble thought, 

He learns to find the good he prized 
Is by his magnet caught. 

No frictions fray the master soul, 

No discords stay his might, 

He speeds all-splendid to his goal 
Through arcs of his own light. 


[70] 


UNSPOOL YOUR LIFE 


T TNSPOOL your life, no thread so fine 
^ That shall not safely run; 

Who grips too hard alone shall spoil 
The fabric once begun. 

He who would weave with golden thread 
The tapestry of life, 

Must boldly weave, and dare to face 
E’en Time with lifted knife. 

Unspool your life with master hand, 
Spend, freely spend your strength; 

Who gives his life without a fear 
But adds unto its length. 


[71] 


DELUSIONS 


T HIS world a dream? The things I see not real 
And all this vast parade of life 
Reflections by a mirror caught— 

Caught from a Mind that does not think, 

Cast by a mirror that is not, 

Throwing a shadow long-forgot 
By a mind that does not think 
Over the vast and vacant brink 
Of nowhere into naught? 

Yet God could never be unless He thinks:— 

No thought without a Thinker, no thought 
Without some fact that demonstrates 
The thought was thought. I am because 
I think. Can God, who all creates, 

Be less? And what He thinks He mates 
With form that fits the thought 
Or else the thought itself is naught, 

Naught but a fool’s mad dream. 

Shall thus the sunset turn to ashen gray? 

And thus the lark’s song, once so sweet 
Pass tremulous to silence dead? 

Shall roses be some mystic dream, 

Shall leaves that gossip overhead 
Be naught? And all the quiet bed 
Of space send forth no peeping gleam 
Of light from starry eyes that beam 
Upon a wond’ring world? 

Go! take your dream of dreamers dreaming dreams 
Into the silence which ye dream. 

But let me live in moving spheres 
Of things and thoughts, of love and life,— 

A world of laughter and of tears— 

Rather for me both hopes and fears 
And all their consequent strife 
Than life but a dream of life! 

Your God is but a dream 1 


[72] 


LIKE THE BROOK 


T IKE the brook I shall live my life today, 

I shall sip from the hidden spring; 

From its bursting brim when I speed away 
Down the heights, I shall shout and sing. 
Through the canyons deep where the echoes roll 
I shall lift up my voice and laugh 
And down by the banks where the shadows stroll 
I shall hum on the lower staff. 

If the sun drives boldly across the sky 
I shall catch his rays with a shout; 

If the thunders roll and the clouds ride high, 

Can its terrors turn me about? 

I shall give to drink to the thirsty soil, 

I shall tread on the whirling wheel, 

I shall join my force with the sons of toil, 

I shall feel what the workers feel. 

But I shall not stay with the jangling throng, 

I shall hie to the open field, 

Where I hear the lark’s upspringing song 
As he peers in the burnished shield. 

As the brook is calm in the quiet place, 

So shall I in my soul be calm, 

And the world shall see in my open face 
What I mirror of cheer and charm. 

Like the brook my life to the sea shall flow 
With a sweep more vast and free; 

And I shall not fear when at last I hear 
The sound of the surging sea. 


[73] 


THE LAUGH OF A BOY 


H AVE you ever heard the sunshine? 
’Tis the tinkling, rippling joy, 
The golden stream 
With silv’ry gleam, 

The care-free laugh of a boy. 

Have you sat alone at twilight 
With your mind free from employ 
And neard a ring 
As angels sing? 

’Tis the rippling laugh of a boy. 

Have you heard seductive music 
With its sensuous decoy? 

It tempted not 
When soft winds brought 
The pure, sweet laugh of a boy. 

When the waves of care roll o’er you, 
Your fondest hopes destroy, 

Then breast the stream 
With mem’ries’ dream 
Of the laugh you laughed as a boy. 

O river of living laughter, 

Naught shall thy course annoy, 

Thou silv’ry stream 
With golden gleam, 

Thy source in the heart of a boy. 


[74] 


MY GREATEST ENEMY 


E VER and ever defeated, I swore by the gods in my 
wrath, 

“Foe, be thou god or the devil, I shall seize thee and 
cast from my path.” 

Then with the keenest of cunning, and wit I had failed 
in before, 

Sternly I sat through the darkness and waited for morn¬ 
ing once more. 

Hark! from the shadows approaching, I sense a half- 
visible form; 

Crouching, I spring from my hiding and strike like the 
flash of the storm. 

God! ’Twas a battle I fought there! I strove with an 
unseen foe, 

Fought as a demon fights demon, and clung ’til the day 
was aglow. 

Morning at last! In the open, I swayed, for with hor¬ 
rible grin, 

Clutched by the throat, I was holding—Myself—yes, 
that self I had been. 

’Twas my own worse self I had taken, ’twas I in the 
path to my goal, 

I had erected the barriers, I had brought grief to my 
soul. 

None in the world can give to me, and none take away 
pow’r or pelf, 

Only one man can defeat me, the man whom I find in 
myself! 


[75] 


ONE STRING 


W E jeer at him who fingers o’er and o’er 
A single viol string: 

The sweetest note that thrills its throat 
With jarring discords ring 
If played too oft. 

Who twangs the harp of life 

And strums and drums one tale 
And prates of woe of long ago 
Or fears some day to fail, 

Is discord’s friend. 

Your life is music only as you touch 
On ev’ry vibrant string; 

Though one note call high over all, 

One splendid motif ring, 

Still play each part 

Each key must have its place in thy refrain, 
No note is ever lost: 

Your melody floats high and free, 

The great note higher tossed 
By all the rest. 


[76] 


TODAY I WORK 


T oday i work, 

Today I move resistless to my goal, 
Today with jaw firm-set and steady gaze, 

I go into the world’s highways 
To match my mind and soul 
With things or fate or men; 

And though I fall, get up again 
And still go on. 

Though men would seem 
To set my path with menace and with doubt 
Today I know that I am greater than 
The perils that defy a man, 

I know no lash or knout, 

Can turn me from my road; 

Resistance is my spur and goad 
To still go on. 

Today with ease 

I bear my load along the paths that wind 

And love my task today and work with zeal; 

For what today I do, I feel 

Is mine to do; and I shall find 

The glory of my work has shed 

Its splendor on my way ahead 

As I go on. 


[77] 


MEMORIAL TO HEROISM 


W HAT monument befits the brave 

Who paid the price in blood to save 
The cause of Freedom, those who gave 
On land and seas 

Their daring gift? Shall arching stone 
And raucous speech and shout atone 
For hell’s wild night and bleaching bone 
Of men like these? 

Ye dead who set a nation free, 

Ye dead who kept its unity, 

Ye dead of Chateau Thierry 
Who put it through— 

O ye who died these decades gone, 

And ye who died but yesterdawn, 

All ye who passed the great gift on, 

How honor you? 

From fields whose harvest is the cross, 
From woods that shriek of pain and loss, 
From stones long overgrown with moss, 
One shout is heard:— 

“Through iron agony we passed, 

Through hell’s mad fire and with’ring blast 
That in that furnace might be cast 
This mighty word, 

“ The Freedom of Mankind!' This then 
We ask—no eloquence of pen!— 

Write thou our deeds in living men 
Upon the heart. 

He shows us honor most and great 
Whose life shall justify our fate; 

Whose soul is kept inviolate, 

He does his part.” 


[78] 


MOTHERHOOD 


THORNE by a valiant spirit 

With reckless heart and air, 

He faced the foe at Argonne 
And won the croix de guerre. 

Once in the midst of battle 
He saved his men hard-pressed; 

His was the daring venture 
That crushed the viper’s nest. 

She was a timid creature, 

The woman of his choice, 

Who shuddered at the shadows 
And feared the wild wind’s voice. 

Yet when the hour of travail 
Suffused her eyes with pain, 

She fearless, fought the battle 
And won to life again. 

Once when the Tireless Reaper 
Was thund’ring at the gate, 

She fought with a fiercer courage 
And forced him stand and wait. 

Then when the child was taken, 

The man with grief gone wild, 

Hers was the faith defiant 
That clasped his hand and smiled. 

Aye, carve in marble whiteness 
The fearless hero’s fame; 

But on the arch of heav’n 
The dauntless woman’s name. 

Inscribe above all daring 
And praiseful deeds and good, 

On the list of fearless ventures 
The brave word, “Motherhood.” 


F 79 I 


ARE THEY LOST? 


T T ERE at the edge of the fountain, quite broken, 
Here by this puddle that leaks from the edge, 
Caught by a puff of the eddying breezes, 

See! it was thrown from my high window ledge. 


Yes, ’twas my own hand that fashioned this basin, 
Strange how it came through untwisted! My word! 
Who would believe that this misshapen tangle 
Ever had served as the cage of my bird! 


Strange what the impulse that draws us unthinking, 
Makes a man turn when it’s too late to turn, 

Knew when I turned there was nothing could save it,— 
Threw up a window and knocked down a fern. 

Breathless I stood as the cage swiftly whirling 
Spun for a moment and crashed on the ground. 

Lo! as I thought that his life was the forfeit, 

He from the ruins took the air with a bound! 

Lo! from the earth upspringing 
Out on the trackless way. 

Somewhere my bird is singing, 

Winging and singing today. 


Lost to my sight and choosing 
Ways that I cannot trace, 

Never its own way losing 
Lightly it wings through space. 

* * * * * * * 
Here from this cage has the spirit departed. 

Lo! There the stone and beyond it the cave! 

Why stand ye weeping, why madly despairing? 
See! he has risen! behold! but a grave! 


Lo! from the earth upspringing 
Out on the trackless way, 
Swiftly your loved one winging 
Never a moment astray! 

r so] 


Lost to our misty seeing, 

Still as he soars the sky, 
He and the Greater Being 
Knows that he did not die. 


[81] 


THE DAY CONTROLS THE NIGHT 


,r jPIS not the night decides the day, 
-*■ The day controls the night, 
Determines when the eve shall come 
And when the morning light. 

The limits of your woe or loss 
Are never set by ill, 

But only by the joys you have, 
Subjective to your will. 

The clouds cannot dissolve the sun, 
The sun dissolves the haze: 

The smiles you cast upon your clouds 
Will turn your nights to days. 


[82] 


THE NEW FLAG OF PEACE 


T SEE a new age dawn, 

A And floating free at morn 
The flag of all the world 
<0n ev’ry staff unfurled, 

A flag of white. 

All colors meet in white, 

And in this flag of light, 

All flags do melt and merge 
And meet the cosmic urge 
To be as one. 

Yet melting into one 
And blazing in the sun 
To merge each cross and bar— 
Alone there stands one star, 
Resplendent, free. 

And lo! this star set free, 

My country, sings of thee! 

’Tis Freedom’s star that shone 
First on thy sight alone— 

But now for all! 

You gave that star to all, 

For it thy youth did fall 
In trench and bloody field, 

That so their lives might shield 
A tortured world. 

Behold throughout the world 
This flag of white unfurled! 

And children at the door 
Of schools the whole world o’er 
Do thus salute: 

“We pledge our love to thee, 

Thou seal of unity, 

Now shall all warring cease: 
High float the flag of peace, 

Our love to thee!” 


[83] 


HEALING SONG 


(Tune: “Draw Me Nearer”) 

T N my soul, O Lord, is the dawning light 

* Of the Son of Righteousness, 

And my heart beats high with my ardent faith 
In the God of tenderness. 

Refrain. 

For my healing, healing, healing, praise the Lord, 
And the joy my soul doth find: 

For the healing, healing, healing, praise the Lord 
Of my body, soul, and mind. 

Give me richer faith in thy life, O Lord, 

As it pours its tides through me: 

Let me view myself as a son of God, 

That I thus may honor Thee. 

Refrain. 

As the years speed by, let me closer press 
To the heart of Love Divine, 

Let my soul grow rich in the joy of God, 

And the life of Christ be mine. 

Refrain: 


[84] 


ANCHORAGE 


T_TEART of the world, I praise Thee, 
-*• God of a love divine, 

Ever Thy joys amaze me, 

Thou who hast called me Thine. 

Darkly the waters raging 
Whirled me out to the sea: 

Fiercely its force engaging, 

Called I aloud to Thee. 

Thou in thy love replying 
Cast out the anchor, Hope: 

Cared not that storms defying 
Pulled at the straining rope, 

For, with a voice commanding, 

God of the wind and sea, 

Spake Thou in stern commanding, 
“Loose him and set him free.” 

Out of the dark emerging, 

Standing at last unbound, 

Free of the tempest’s scourging, 
Blessed is the truth I have found: 

He whom the storm is worsting, 
Carrying him out to sea, 

Finds at length an unbursting 
Anchorage, Father, in Thee. 


[85] 


THE FLIGHT OF THE SOUL 


G OD of Love, our thoughts arise 

Borne on wings of faith to Thee, 
Darting through the beckoning skies 
Soaring glad and springing free; 

Safe from fear, my soul in praise 
Seeks to voice its joy in song; 

All my thoughts in tireless lays, 

Singing, wing their way along. 

High above the battling tide 
Soars my glad aspiring soul, 

Borne by fav’ring winds I ride 
Swiftly to my distant goal; 

Through the vast uncharted space, 

By an instinct strong, divine, 

I do seek Thy dwelling-place, 

Father-God, to make it mine I 

Pause, my soul, a new delight 
Greets me as I higher rise! 

God is on my left, my right, 

On the earth and in the skies. 

Though I speed to some far goal 
Unrevealed in spaces dim, 

God is everywhere, my soul; 

Thou mayst fly, yet rest in Him! 


[ 86 ] 


GOD OF MEN AND NATIONS 


Mid-Summer Convention Hymn, 1918 

C OME, join ye your voices in praising the Lord 
Who maketh the worlds by the power of His Word: 
All hail and all praise to the love and the might 
Of God the Creator, whose marvelous Light 
Dispels all the darkness of chaos and night. 

One Spirit Celestial, one Father of all, 

The God of the nations, the great and the small: 

All hail and all praise to the pow’r that doth bind 
The hearts of all people until they shall find 
That all are but one in the Infinite Mind. 

From war’s desolations we look for surcease 
In light of the love of the Great Prince of Peace, 

And join all our forces to hasten the day 
When Truth is set free and Justice shall sway, 

And Right is triumphant forever and aye. 

Then hail to one God, to one Light, Love, and Truth, 
Whose spirit is one with the vision of youth, 

At one with the valor that fights for the right, 

At one with the effort of all who unite 
To drive out the darkness by bringing the light. 

We praise and adore Thee, Thou Ruler Divine 
Whose kingdom the world is—Thy love shall entwine 
All hearts and all hopes in one union of praise: 

To Thee, God of men and of nations, we raise 
Our soul’s adoration, Thou Ancient of Days. 


[ 87 ] 


ONE THING I KNOW 


T CAME from—God knows whence I came 
I go to—God knows where; 

The yesterdays lie ’neath the sod; 
Tomorrows, in the air. 

Today alone is known to me, 

Tomorrow is not mine; 

Yet looking back and looking on, 

I see one star-truth shine. 

If yesterday lies buried low, 

Thy morrow in the sky, 

Thy way today is on and up, 

Climb on, the goal is high! 

I came from—God knows whence I came; 

I go to—God knows where; 

But while I climb, I know my way 
Lies always in His care. 


[88] 


TO WILL AND TO DO 


I WILL do so, I will do so. 

I will— 

’Tis resolve, 

It is purpose, intent— 

’Tis the forces of mind determinedly bent 
Which revolve 
And thrill 

Round and through the things we do. 

I will do so, I will do so— 

Will do¬ 
lt is act, 

It is carrying out 

The deep resolution of what we’re about: 
Is in fact 
The new 

Of desire in test of fire. 

To will and to do his good will— 

Aye, pause 
Hapless soul, 

In whom purpose and act 

Are never united and fused into fact— 

In a whole! 

Because 

Act and song in ONE belong. 


[89] 


MY BOY BEYOND 


To a Friend 

Y OU may not come to me, but I can go 
I fear not the wide stretch of plain, 

I know that He who met you on your way 
Will meet me too, beyond the blue 
And guide me to my boy again. 


[90] 


THE HOME HARBOR 


ATY ship is sailing a placid sea 

At the end of a stormy trip: 

I glide along on the waveless deep, 

I am free at length of the wind’s wide sweep, 

In my safe, unhurried ship. 

I near the end of the long romance, 

The adventurous trip of life; 

And freighted deep with its treasures rare, 

I breathe the sweet and perfumed air, 

Escaped from the gale’s keen knife. 

The harbors await me, the turrets shine 
On the castles of yonder town: 

A thousand welcoming voices shout, 

And friends of yore come pouring out 

As my sails go tumbling down. 

’Tis home! ’Tis home! for my mother there, 

And long-lost dear ones stand! 

And, there the face of a life-long friend!— 

My venturesome voyage has found its end— 

Lo ! Christ with an outstretched hand! 


[91] 


MY AFFIRMATION 


T AM singing the song of the spirit, 

I am chanting the song of the soul 
There is Love to the depth of my being, 
The presence of God makes me whole. 


r 92 ] 


MY ASSURANCE 


loves me,” let my soul sing on 
The sweet refrain. 

“God loves me,” let the song ring on 
Again, again. 

“God loves me,” in his constant love 
My one delight. 

“God loves me,” I am raised above 
The gloom of night. 

“God loves me, God is Love,” the song 
So thrills my soul! 

“God loves me,” I to him belong, 

In him am whole. 

“God loves me,” endless song of songs 
Forever sing! 

“God loves me,” I can know no wrongs, 
To Him I cling. 


[93] 


MY CONFIDENCE 


A Treatment 

W ITH perfect joy, I greet the dawn, 
With perfect calm, the night, 
Asleep, awake, at work, or play, 

I know that all is right. 

Beneath the shelter of Thy wing, 

I rest and find relief. 

Thy truth my shield, the secret place 
Of joy, beyond belief. 

No fear can come; there is no fear 
Of pain, disease, or death; 

Of evil thought or enemy 
To one whose life and breath 
Are drawn from that deep inner source, 
That realm sublime within, 

Where spirit doth with Spirit meet 
To save from pain or sin. 

O creeping fears and terrors dim, 

Ye have no part in me; 

For God is Good and I am God’s 
And naught else will I be. 

I thank Thee, Father, for my joy, 

I thank Thee for my peace; 

I thank Thee that my fear is gone, 

And for my heart’s release. 

I bless Thy name, I rest in Thee 
As one all-pressed about 
By angel wings and pleasant things 
One cannot do without. 

Accept my thanks that where Thou art 
There is no pain nor fear: 

Nor shall it come to me again, 

Since Thou art ever near. 


[94] 


BE STILL 


T)E still, for I, thy Father, dwell 
Within thine inmost soul: 

Be still and let My Voice command 
Thy heart; My Word control 
Thine act: oh, rest in quiet 'til 
My thought shall rule thy will. 


[95] 


HELD FAST 


O BOUNDLESS love of God 
That holds my soul, 

Kept fast 

Above the earth-drawn clod, 

And make me whole 
At last. 

In Thee I find my life 
Restored, made good, 

And own 

The hope that glows through strife 
And makes the rood 
A crown. 

O matchless life of man! 

Begot of God! 

You rise 

And soar, beyond the span 
Of lowly clod, 

The skies. 


[96] 


NOW DO I RECEIVE 


T DWELL in the Secret Presence, 
I rest in the ocean of love, 

I walk with God in my spirit, 

I draw from the forces above. 


I wait on the Lord for renewing, 
I trust in His promise alway, 

I ask and receive with the asking, 
I ask and receive it TODAY. 


[ 97 ] 


LOOK UP 


T IFT up your eyes to the stars in the skies, 

■L-' And open your soul unto heaven: 

Look unto Life, and find rest from your strife, 
And all that you ask shall be given. 


[981 


MY MIND WAS CHANGED 


(A Dialogue) 

W HY do you sing today? Still hides his face, the 
sun, 

And all is sad the same as when your grief begun. 

You do not know the joy that sings in me today, 
Because it all is gone, I’ve cast it all away. 

What is it you cast off; can grief and pain be cast, 

Can all your loss and woe be buried in the past? 

But still confess you see the strain and stress is gone, 
Some weight has rolled away; mine eyes not woe 
begone, 

The pain has left my head; that strain here in my side 
Has vanished in the sea, as shores cleansed by the tide. 

The tide? What tide? I see, some change come over 
you, 

An atmosphere, a calm, a radiance, ’tis true. 

Whence does it spring? Ah, friend, reveal this thing 
to me, 

That I may find your joy, that I your secret see. 

It came at dawn, this peace; there lighted in my soul 
A wondrous light, that cleansed my mind and made me 
whole. 

It “cleansed your mind”? You mock my deep desire 
to know. 

“Your mind was cleansed,” my friend? 

Dost change the body so? 

’Tis so, indeed, ’tis so! Trust took the place of fear; 
Love took the place of loss; and joy, of sorrow drear. 
Pain vanished with the thought of ever-present love, 

I caught a view of God—within—not up above. 

In me! In me; within! His kingdom is within! 
Where God is, pain is not, where love is, gone is sin. 

I breathe a newer life, I live in Spirit now, 

And not to fear nor pain, but just to Truth I bow. 

[99] 


My heart was changed at once, my mind changed with 
my heart; 

Love showed the way to Truth; Truth played its heal¬ 
ing part. 




[ 100 ] 


LOOK FOR THE GOOD 



OOK for the good! So only shall ye find delight in 


life. 


The worst is there? Ah, yes, ’tis hard to see the good 
When much we see of ill, but still the good is there! 
That finer sense, that fairer form, that spirit bold and 
true, 

God’s self appears in all: through all, in all, He works 
and lives 

And to Himself is true,—and so the good is there. 

The green scum lying on the pool scowls at the sun 
And hides its vulgar depths, and thinks 
To seize upon the beams of day 
And hold, nor mirror back again— 

Yet all the while a deeper urge divine 
Stirs in the pool, and rising, parts the filth, and forth 
appears 
The lily! 

Fairest of flowers, and rich in fragrance and in bloom, 
It blows its perfumed breath across the putrid waste, 
And gathering all the sunbeams in its breast, 

It glows in simple beauty and content within its humble 
sphere. 

No less is man; in all is good, 

In all the deeper urging of a power divine, 

Whereof we see that God is there within His son, 

For all are sons of God, as Christ himself declared 
To those who carped and jeered and puffed themselves 
as holy ones alone. 

The good is there, the splendid good, the urge of God 
in man! 


[ 101 ] 


FOR HER 


I ASKED of the sky with its changing hue, 

“What do you paint with your brilliant blue?” 
And this was the word that I faintly heard 
From the smiling skies: 

“Her eyes.” 

I turned to the sun, that with glorious ray 
Was painting its pigments into the day: 

“Oh, why dost thou gleam with such golden stream, 
For what purpose rare?” 

“Her hair.” 

A lily I found that answered me 

When I asked, “What shall thy future be; 

To what heaven bright shall thy soul take flight, 
Will you tell me now?” 

“Her brow.” 

I stopped by the way while I plucked a rose: 

“Pray, tell me where all your crimson goes!” 

And the rose flushed red as it faintly said 
From its petal tips, 

“Her lips ” 

“Oh, why then,” I asked, “do you paint so fair 
My love, ye children of earth and air?” 

And while Nature smiled at her questioning child, 
From her lips she blew, 

“For you.” 


[102] 


STARS AND FIRE-FLIES 


T HEARD a bird calling 

While shadows were falling 
And dusk blew down from the hills. 
The trees were a-rustle 
In motherly bustle 

To cover the earth with their spills. 
The night-owl was stretching 
Himself; like an etching 
I saw him against the sky. 

“Hoo-hoot” he was flinging 
Himself to go winging 
Away where the insects fly. 

Across the blue billows 
I saw the soft pillows 
The sun-god uses at night, 

His sleepy head sinking 
All drowsy and blinking 
Was hid by a red-torch-light. 

The great sea was rocking 
His bed and was talking 
In softest tones of the deep. 

Dark fell like a curtain, 

And so I was certain 
The sun-god had fallen to sleep. 

The fire-flies no longer 
In fear of the stronger 
And brighter light of the sun 
Came flying and darting 
And stopping and starting 
And sinking and skipping in fun. 

The pale stars were lighted 
But seemed all afrighted 
By lanterns the fire-flies had hung:— 
If fire-flies shine brighter 
And make the world lighter. 

The praise of the stars goes unsung. 
But this ought not shame them 
For no one will blame them 
Who fling their soft light afar;— 
The whole world is pining 
To be the fair shining 


[103] 


And radiant light of a star. 

The stars would all tumble 
In terrible jumble 
Who tried to fly like a fly: 

I hope they will never 
Thus try to be clever 
But stay up there in the sky. 

Nor fire-flies a-gleaming 
With lantern-light streaming 
Need envy the stars’ true ray:— 

If they should be taken 
To heav’n, mistaken 
For stars that have wandered away, 
’Twould be to their sorrow 
For they could not borrow 
Enough of a light to see, 

And in the dark places 
Their poor little faces 
Would always be lost to me. 

****** 

We all show our beauty 
In doing our duty 
Whatever our kind of light: 

The place of high honor 
Is that little corner 
Where we are shining tonight. 


[104] 


MY CLOCK 


I DON’T know why 
The clock should lie 
And tell untruths to me, 

But when I wake 
By some mistake, 

It always seems to be 
Too fast! 

By some sad fate 
I will be late 
Unless I jump from bed. 

I dare not stop, 

But out I hop 
And dress as though it said, 
“Get up.” 

And then at school 
The clocks all fool 
Us children, they’re so slow: 
When they say four 
It’s really more, 

But we don’t dare to go 
Away. 

When I get big 
So I can dig 
Into the earth for gold, 

I’ll buy a clock 
That goes tick-tock 
And does just what it’s told 
By me. 

And when I try 
In bed to lie, 

My clock shall just stand still, 
And every clock 
That goes tick-tock 
Will have to wait until 
Mine goes. 


[105] 


My clock shall run 
As fast as fun 

When school is half way through, 
And when I look 
I’ll close my book: 

Cause four shall come at two 
Or one. 


[106] 


BIGGER THAN THE STARS 


T LOOKED up at the stars tonight 
To see their funny points of light, 
And there they were all shining bright 
Like fire-flies in the air. 

I know that they are big and far, 

Much bigger than the fire-flies are, 

That nothing’s bigger than a star, 

And yet it made me stare 
To think how great is their surprise 
When they look down with their own eyes 
From their high places in the skies 
And see that I can talk. 

They may be bigger far than me, 

They may stand higher than a tree, 

They may be wise as wise can be, 

But still they cannot walk. 

And so I think you stars must know 
As through the silent blue you go 
That little folks like me below 
Are greater far than you. 

’Cause I can walk and talk and think, 
And get a cup and take a drink, 

And choose what I shall do, and wink 
And blink my eyelids too. 


[ 107 ] 


V 





CHILDREN’S POEMS 


[ 109 ] 





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THE STAR MAN 


SPHERE’S such a funny man 
Lives way out there. 

His home is in the hills: 

Say, you would stare 
If you could see that man, 
’Cause he don’t care 
About his clo’se, and fills 
His han’s with flowers, 

An’ pockets with the rocks, 

An’ stands in showers 

Jus’ like there warn’t no clocks 

Nor any hours, 

While he jus’ counts the stars 
On star-light nights. 

An’, well, I think he talks 
To all the lights, 

An’ all the moon-beam bars 
An’ all the sights 
An’ sights from here to Mars. 
An’ once I crawled up still 
Behind a stump, 

An’ I jus’ seen him fill 
His chist and thump 
Hisself real hard, until 
I most said, “Hump!” 

But he seemed jus’ plum’ full 
Of joy,—and glad, 

Jes like he’d run from school 
’Cause he jus’ had 
To get down to the pool 
And swim like mad. 

An’ gee, I heard him say, 

“My shinin’ star, 

My golden gleamin’ ray, 

You come from far 
To turn my night to day. 

You are my star, 

For in dim ages past, 

The God of Light, 

Whose Spirit held me fast, 

To make more light, 

[HI] 


Took in his hand and cast 
Thee forth with might. 

An’ I am part of Him 
That made thee shine; 

An’ thru the spaces dim 
An’ ether fine, 

I claim thee on the rim 
Of heav’n as mine. 

My star, my light, my beam, 
You shine for me; 

An’ in your radiant stream 
The light I see 

Of Him that made thee gleam— 
’Tis God and thee. 

O God of stars above, 

God of the air, 

God of the radiant love, 

O God most fair, 

This shinin’ orb doth prove 
That Thou art there.” 

I know you think it queer 
I know so well 

The thoughts he used, and near 
The words that fell, 

An’ how he was some seer, 
That I can tell. 

Well, he saw me an’ said 
That children can 
Know all these things he read 
From heav’n’s span, 

And put it in my head,— 

He’s my star man. 


[ 112 ] 


GOD’S LITTLE ONE 


OD’S little one— 

The babe that comes to me, 

Puts ’round my neck her little arm 
And snuggles close at slight alarm, 
God’s little one must be. 

God’s little one— 

So simple is her way, 

So sweet the pressure of her head, 

So comforting the word unsaid, 

But felt from her alway! 

God’s little one— 

His messenger indeed, 

For naught in all the world above 
Betokens God as does her love 
At just my hour of need. 

God’s little one— 

They say that God lives far 
In yonder stretch of heav’nly blue, 

And rules as king and princes do 
Beyond the farthest star. 

God’s little one— 

He rather rules through you 
This selfish heart, this stubborn will, 
This restless mind that’s never still, 
And thus God’s voice speaks through 
My little one. 


[113] 


THE WORDS YOU SAY 


W HEN the sun goes to bed in his billowy nest 
And calls all his children home, 

And the rays of the sun to their father have run 
Down under the great blue dome: 

When the stars that have hidden away in the mist 
Come peering forth from the sky, 

And the birds with a peep have all fallen asleep, 

And shrill is the cricket’s cry: 

When the fire-flies a-dance in the stilly night air 
Go flying somewhere and back; 

When the frogs are a-trump and g-r-r-rumpy, gr-r-rump, 
In pools that are inky black; 

When the owl in the oak with his feathers a-puff 
Has opened his saucepan eyes 
And has uttered a hoot, and with hooty-toot-toot, 

Out into the darkness flies: 

Then the doors of the trees and the rocks and the hills 
Are opened wide by the elves, 

And the brownies come out and fays go about 
And fairies display themselves. 

Then they dance down the dell and go spinning about, 
They run on the star-beam track, 

And laugh ’til they cry when the bold ones try 
To ride on the owl, bareback. 

In the trees the wee brownies are rocking away 
Aloft in the topmost swing, 

Or they peer in the nest where the birds are at rest 
Safe under the mother’s wing. 

And the best of the fairies are hastening about 
To tasks that they joy to do, 

While beneath their coats, clear up to their throats 
Are buttoned some things from you! 

FOR THE FAIRIES ARE THOUGHTS that go 
speeding about 

To carry the words you say,— 

The things that you said when you went to your bed 
And words that you spoke all day. 

And the fairies have gathered the kind things you said 
And thoughts that are big and true; 

To your friends through the night, they deliver aright 
Like letters these thoughts from you. 


[U4] 


But THE MEAN LITTLE THOUGHT IS A DARK- 
SKINNED ELF, 

A warped and a twisted thing. 

With its spears in its hand it speeds through the land 
To pierce and to hurt and sting. 

When you wake in the night and the stars are a-shine, 

I ask you to peep from bed 
And to see, if you may, just what kind of a fay 
YOU made by the words you said. 

Do not fear if your thought is a fairy-like thing! 

But if ’tis a horrid elf, 

Just you bid it come back from its terrible track, 

For You made the thing yourself! 

In the silence send out on its mission this thought: 

“I bless all the world tonight, 

Now go, little word, for the fairies have heard, 

I want all my thoughts to be right.” 


[115] 


IF I WERE A BOY AGAIN 


I F I were a boy again 

I would do as I did in the long ago, 

In the summer the pool; 

In the winter the snow, 

In the beautiful days of the long-ago, 

Those days of flawless joy! 

If I were a boy again— 

Oh, the day of the birds would be my day; 

I would rise with the lark 
I would carol his way, 

I would laugh and sing in my care-free play, 
If only I were a boy. 

’Tis ho, for the pool 
At the close of school, 

In the sunlight-gladdened air, 

With the dive and splash 
And the water’s crash 
Over lithe limbs, bronzed and bare. 

Or to sit and dream 
With a hook in stream 
Of the golden hours beyond: 

And the deep delight 
Of the flying kite, 

Or a sail on the old mill-pond! 

Oh, to climb the hill 
In the moonlight still, 

When the crust lies on the snow, 

Then the body bent 
For the quick descent 
As the flying runners go! 

Or to skate at night 
In the full moonlight 
With one whose hand you hold; 
Through the shadows dim 
How you love to skim, 

How her cheeks grew red—with cold! 

[ 116 ] 


If I were a boy again, 

I would do as I did in the long ago, 
Just how often I think, 

Oh, you never can know, 

Of the beautiful days of the long-ago, 
Those days of a flawless joy. 


[117] 


I AM SINGING 


I AM singing today for my heart is glad; 

And I thrill with a deep delight, 

For the dark clouds fly, all swept from the sky 
By the beams of the sun’s warm light. 

Hear the song of the lark as he soars away 
To be free in the blue above; 

Ev’ry note he sings as he mounts on wings, 

Is of love, “God is love,” dear love! 

Just you look for the blessings Our Father gives 
You will find them ev’ry where,— 

In the rainbow’s gleam, in the sparkling stream; 
In the ocean, the trees, and air. 

In the light of the sun, I can see God’s smile; 

And the stars that look at me 
Reveal a trace of our dear God’s face 
Which I think that the flow’rs can see. 

So I’m singing today and I laugh with joy, 

And I have not a fear nor care, 

For I feel and know, that above and below 
Is the God of the everywhere. 


[118] 


MY GOOD-NIGHT PRAYER 


^TOW let me sleep. In peace I lay me down 
^ As draws the day to close: 

Good day or ill, no more it vexes thought 
Than when at morn I rose. 

Now on the breast of night once more I lie 
As when a child I lay 

Close in the warm embrace of mother-love, 

Worn with the hours of play. 

I rest and breathe a prayer to God tonight 
And feel his presence near, 

Whose power is great, whose wings o’er-shadowed me 
And guard my heart from fear. 

Dark though the night, I closer press to God: 

He sees beyond the dark 

And knows the good that yonder lies for me— 

He hears the morning lark! 

So let me sink to rest in dreamless sleep— 

Flee, cares, to shadows dim!— 

My soul shall find its peace in God and wake 
From sleep or death to Him. 


THE END 


[119] 

























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